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Linux creator Linus Torvalds has apologized for years of rants, swearing, and general hostility directed at other Linux developers, saying he's going to take a temporary break from his role as maintainer of the open source kernel to learn how to behave better.

For many years, Torvalds has been infamous for his expletive-filled, aggressive outbursts on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), chewing out developers who submit patches that he believes aren't up to the standards necessary for the kernel. He's defended this behavior in the face of pushback from other developers, insisting that people being nice to one another was an American ideology.

But that may be coming to an end. In a lengthy email posted to the LKML on Sunday night, Torvalds expressed a change of heart. Taken to task over attacks that he recognizes were "unprofessional and uncalled for," he says he now recognizes that his behavior was "not OK" and he is "truly sorry." He's going to step back from kernel development for a while—something he's done before while developing the Git source control system—so that he can "get help on how to behave differently."

It's not entirely clear what precipitated this change, though Torvalds did mention a little of the backstory. The Linux Maintainer Summit, an invitation-only gathering of around 30 core Linux developers, takes place each year to provide a venue for kernel maintainers to discuss issues around the kernel's development process. This year's summit was due to be in Vancouver but was moved earlier this month to Edinburgh after it turned out that Torvalds had mistakenly booked a vacation in Scotland that clashed with the Vancouver event.

This situation presented two options: stay in Vancouver without Torvalds or move to Edinburgh with Torvalds. Torvalds himself preferred the first option, but this idea was met with resistance, suggesting that Torvalds' behavior, which is known to have driven some developers away from kernel development entirely, was one of the issues that the maintainers wanted to discuss. Accordingly, the decision was made to move to Edinburgh to fit in with his vacation. That such a disruptive change of venue should occur indicates there's considerable strength of feeling about Torvalds' presence.

Simultaneously with this, the Linux project now has a code of conduct. Previously, the project had a "code of conflict": a short document that asserts that the code quality is the only thing that matters and implores developers to "be excellent to each other." The new code of conduct is more extensive and sets explicit standards for behavior, requiring it to be positive, professional, welcoming, and inclusive.

Together, these changes represent a big shake-up of the kernel development process and style. Of course, it remains to be seen whether anything will actually change—old habits die hard, after all. Kernel developer and Torvalds critic Matthew Garrett tweeted that the changes are a "long overdue step in the right direction" but that he'll "believe it when [he sees] some actual change." By contrast, many denizens of the /r/Linux subreddit are unimpressed, dismissing the code of conduct as made up by a "completely insane and bigoted individual" and claiming that "millenial [sic] snowflakes finally got to him."

In contrast, many denizens of the /r/Linux subreddit are unimpressed, dismissing the code of conduct as made up by a "completely insane and bigoted individual," and claiming that "millenial [sic] snowflakes finally got to him."

Perhaps he just needs good rest, which surely is well deserved. Or maybe something else - I do not dare to judge. In any case, thank you Mr Torvalds for your excellent work to date, and do not worry *too* much about occasional outbursts.

In contrast, many denizens of the /r/Linux subreddit are unimpressed, dismissing the code of conduct as made up by a "completely insane and bigoted individual," and claiming that "millenial [sic] snowflakes finally got to him."

If there's one constant we can count on in this world, it's the idiocy of techbros.

It's so sad to me that "don't be an ass" is something that needs to be codified. But better to have it codified and followed than to treat maladjusted adolescent hostility as some kind of badge of honor or figure of merit.

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many denizens of the /r/Linux subreddit are unimpressed, dismissing the code of conduct as made up by a "completely insane and bigoted individual," and claiming that "millenial [sic] snowflakes finally got to him."

The bit about /r/linux is sadly too true. Lots of rants about how you should never "cave to SJW" and that Linux is now completely doomed because Linus won't be mean to people.

One of the worst things we tell ourselves is that being negative and hurtful is the only way to stay on our toes and be productive. People believe this about the way they treat themselves much more than the way they treat others, but it seems that some people truly believe the only way to progress is beatings.

One of the worst things we tell ourselves is that being negative and hurtful is the only way to stay on our toes and be productive. People believe this about the way they treat themselves much more than the way they treat others, but it seems that some people truly believe the only way to progress is beatings.

I try not to say this lightly, but there's seriously something wrong with a person who believes that the path to greatest productivity, individually or as a team, is performative cruelty.

Yeah, I think the emphasis here is more on personal insults. Calling Intel or Nvidia trash companies for doing trash things is fine, but when someone submits a bad patch in good faith the reaction should never be this:

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Of course, I'd also suggest that whoever was the genius who thought itwas a good idea to read things ONE F*CKING BYTE AT A TIME with systemcalls for each byte should be retroactively aborted. Who the f*ck doesidiotic things like that? How did they noty die as babies, consideringthat they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on?

I hate to be the guy that holds a grudge but it annoys me when people are terrible people for years on end and then expect to say sorry and everyone forget. I will believe it when he shows it is true over an extended period of time. You see this a lot in the work place. Saying sorry doesn't change your past terrible behavior and people don't forget it.

One of the worst things we tell ourselves is that being negative and hurtful is the only way to stay on our toes and be productive. People believe this about the way they treat themselves much more than the way they treat others, but it seems that some people truly believe the only way to progress is beatings.

I try not to say this lightly, but there's seriously something wrong with a person who believes that the path to greatest productivity, individually or as a team, is performative cruelty.

And I don't doubt that there are such people.

I think that's a bit of a straw man, though.

The question is this: what do we do with people who are brilliant and productive, but can't or won't be polite and professional all the time? One option, is that we can give them their own space, where they can toil away and be abrasive, and normal people don't involve themselves except when absolutely necessary. Another option, is that we engage in ever more coercive attempts to cure of them of this defective behavior, up to the point of exile.

I think a lot of these open source projects started out as the former, but as a project becomes successful, a lot of more normal people want to be involved and they end up implementing the latter on that project space. This is unfortunate but perhaps inevitable, but it's why I predict he won't be back: he will probably realize he will always be in jeopardy in this new environment, and be far better off going to work on some other more obscure project where he can be who he is and spend his attention on code instead of politics.

C'mon, he has said this SO many times it is getting to be an annual thing. He should just record his "I am sorry, I am going to stop and get help." message so he doesn't have to keep saying it. He will go away for a bit, come back as usual and jump right back into his normal habits.

On the other hand, his rants have become so normal they are barely news anymore. And, it seems to work for him, so, c'est la vie, I guess. If he was suddenly nice, the catastrophic shift to the world may crack it open and we would all plummet to a flaming death or it may suck all the carbon out of the air in one fell swoop and global warming would be stopped dead. Armageddon or panacea, who knows where that potential coin flip would end. Probably safer for all of us if he just keeps being Linus.

I hate to be the guy that holds a grudge but it annoys me when people are terrible people for years on end and then expect to say sorry and everyone forget. I will believe it when he shows it is true over an extended period of time. You see this a lot in the work place. Saying sorry doesn't change your past terrible behavior and people don't forget it.

He's not just saying "sorry", though given his personality I'd imagine that was extremely painful for him. He's replaced the code of conduct that he made ages ago, and that's allowed him to get away with what he's been doing. He's also taking a hiatus from the kernel and consulting with people specifically to learn how to be less of a gigantic asshole.

Are we sure that being a jerk is actually a negative thing for society? A constantly polite society sounds like a dystopian nightmare.

Clearly this:

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Of course, I'd also suggest that whoever was the genius who thought itwas a good idea to read things ONE F*CKING BYTE AT A TIME with systemcalls for each byte should be retroactively aborted. Who the f*ck doesidiotic things like that? How did they noty die as babies, consideringthat they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on?

C'mon, he has said this SO many times it is getting to be an annual thing. He should just record his "I am sorry, I am going to stop and get help." message so he doesn't have to keep saying it. He will go away for a bit, come back as usual and jump right back into his normal habits.

On the other hand, his rants have become so normal they are barely news anymore. And, it seems to work for him, so, c'est la vie, I guess. If he was suddenly nice, the catastrophic shift to the world may crack it open and we would all plummet to a flaming death or it may suck all the carbon out of the air in one fell swoop and global warming would be stopped dead. Armageddon or panacea, who knows where that potential coin flip would end. Probably safer for all of us if he just keeps being Linus.

I've never seen Linus apologize for his general behavior, so I'd be interested where you've seen it before. I've consistently seen him say the exact opposite - that he will not change how he acts or how he speaks to people, that he will not censor himself, and that he does not care if the broader community thinks he's an asshole.

Are we sure that being a jerk is actually a negative thing for society? A constantly polite society sounds like a dystopian nightmare.

I dare you to explain why "we're all nice to each other" sounds like an unpleasant world to live in.

I bet you can't.

If this is meant earnestly and not as some sort of sad trolling, you must live a very lonely life, and I honestly feel bad for you. I sincerely wish you the best, and that includes a lot of personal growth.

The simple truth of the matter is, no matter who you are, no matter how great and talented you are (or believe you are), people will eventually get sick of your shit if you're a caustic person. At some point, you're simply not worth the effort. That limit is pretty low for some people, and pretty high for others, but don't for a minute think it isn't there.

I hate to be the guy that holds a grudge but it annoys me when people are terrible people for years on end and then expect to say sorry and everyone forget. I will believe it when he shows it is true over an extended period of time. You see this a lot in the work place. Saying sorry doesn't change your past terrible behavior and people don't forget it.

While I agree that saying sorry isn't nearly enough to excuse years of bad behavior when I think about it, it's not really enough to excuse seconds of bad behavior either if it's not genuine. If he can back this with an honest effort and a change in behavior he is deserving of a second chance. But he's going to have to prove that to every single person he tries to work with. The proof will will be if he has a demonstrable change in behavior, and the part where he's taking time off to work on that show's that there's a chance he is actually being genuine

It may be interesting to see if the code quality in the kernel improves or decays with this change, and if kernel crash frequency and performance increase or decrease.

It is all OK to say that there needs to be more contribution to the kernel, but the kernel is a truly unforgiveing place to write code. It cannot be sloppy or defective code, or the kernel crashes or performs poorly.

His comment about writing something one byte at a time with syscalls, while perhaps aggressive, is a reasonable response to unperformant code that should not be in a main operating system kernel.